


To Fall In Love

by Iocane



Category: W.E. (2011)
Genre: Children, F/M, and even sappier Evgeni, and pregnent wally, sappy happy children, sappy retelling of movie events, they're still sickeningly in love 14 years later
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-12
Updated: 2016-05-12
Packaged: 2018-06-08 00:52:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6832204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iocane/pseuds/Iocane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The oldest is 13, the youngest is 2.   This is the story of how mama fell in love with papa.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Fall In Love

**Author's Note:**

> As usual love to stardusteddameron!
> 
> Also, the live in Brighton Beach, now.

Evgeni has one hand on the girl's tummy, the other guiding her fingers on the piano. She's not really old enough to play, but she loves when he does it, the plinking seems to soothe her. He can feel Wally's eyes on him, on the couch nearby. Turning his head slightly, he can see her, too. Ilya is beside her, head bowed over a book far too old for his seven year old mind. On the floor is Nadya, eleven and their second oldest. Her older brother, Evgeni Junior, Big Junior ever since he'd shot up taller than his father, is leaning over Ilya's shoulder, helping him with some of the more difficult Cyrillic passages. In her father's lap is two year old Wallis.

"Mama?" Nadya asks, looking up from the glossy magazine spread on the floor. A glance shows it to be a teen oriented one, tips on makeup and the like. He isn't fond of that kind of thing but better to allow them their expression than to stifle it. 

"Yes, sweetie?" she asked, hands resting on her already large stomach. She was only six months but looked ready to burst. Twins would do that.

"How did you and Papa fall in love?" she asked, pushing the curly blonde hair off her forehead as she sat up.

Evgeni smiled and turned on the piano chair, lifting little Wally to tuck her into his arm. They'd told versions of this story over the years - the 'how did you meet' story but never to their children, though they'd all heard tidbits here and there.

"The very first time he asked me to dance," she said, meeting his eyes across the room. They were never the types to smile broadly, but what smiles they shared always said so much.

"When was that?" Nadya asked. Big Junior rounded the couch to sit beside his brother, and the book on Ilya's lap closed as they listened.

"Long before any of you were born," she said, shifting a little to get comfortable. Out of habit and caring, Evgeni stood. Wallis was given to Big Junior, who cradled her just as his father did, and with almost as much love in his eyes.

Evgeni helped her lean forward, adjusting the pillows, and the helped her lean back. They had already decided these would be the last. "Okay?" he murmured as she settled back and she nodded, her eyes saying more than her lips usually did. His knuckle ghosted over her cheek before he straightened. Assured of her comfort, he resumed his spot on the piano, but left Wallis with her brother.

"Tell us, mama!" Nadya asked, and Evgeni could see the pleading looks on all of their faces. Even Wallis seemed more attentive, sensing something was happening around her.

"Before he was head of security, your father was a guard at Sotheby's. I worked there long before, but hadn't for some years. I was visiting, there was a huge auction preview and I went every day to see what there was.

"This was the Duke and Duchess, yes?" Ilya's all too serious voice asked.

"Your mother and sister are named for the Duchess," Evgeni supplied.

"No, I'm named for the Duchess, Wallis is named because you father is sentimental and I was unconscious," Wally said, but her soft smile took any heat from the words. Evgeni chuckled, unable to deny the accusation. 

"But how did you fall in love?" Nadya asked, eager and impatient, as she always was.

"Alright, I'm telling it," Wally said with a soft laugh. "Your father and I had spoken a few times. Introduced ourselves. I wasn't sure what to make of him at first. Aunt Tenten didn't tell me much about him."

"What *did* she say?" Big Junior asked, giving his sister a broad finger for her to suckle.

"Russian Intellectual slumming as a security guard," she said, and Evgeni warmed at the smile in her eyes. She left off the dismissive 'dime a dozen.' He and Tenten had come to understand each other over the years, though they would probably never like each other.

"We had coffee once, then he asked me to stay after closing hours, he had something to show me." Evgeni smiled at that, readily recalling the memory. "I waited in the viewing gallery while he and Uncle Dwayne and some others locked up. Then he came to get me. In a bearskin hat and a kilt," she said.

"Oh!" Nadya turned, blonde curls whipping around as she pointed. "That picture?!" She pointed to a grainy black and white photo on the far wall. It was an odd angle, but that was due to it being a frame capture from a security camera. Even so, it clearly showed a younger Evgeni in a tall fur hat and a kilt.

"Dwayne always claimed he kept that as blackmail. He gave it to us at our wedding," Evgeni said.

"I realized when I saw him that I was happy for the first time in a long time. He took me to the grand piano and played for me." 

"What did he play?" Nadya asked eagerly.

"You all know it," Evgeni said, turning to face the piano. Weathered hands easily picked out the tune, their song. He could hear murmurs of realization spread through the children. Even Ilya, who could not carry a tune in a basket, knew how to play this one.

Wally's voice carried over the gentle notes. "After he played, he put a song on the Duke and Duchesses victrola. And then he took the champagne glass from my hand and asked me to dance."

"Show us!" Nadya asked, enraptured by the story. With the same quiet understanding his father possessed, Big Junior eased Wallis into Ilya's lap and went to take his father's place at the piano. Big Junior was the most skilled and they switched with barely a break in the music.

His hair greyer, face and hands a bit older, Evgeni crossed the room with the same purpose as before. Getting her to her feet took a little more effort, but not much. He drew her into his arms and it was like the years fell away.

"I'd never been held like this," Wally said, smiling up at him. "Like I was precious. Valued. Loved," she said as they moved easily across the floor. Nadya had grabbed her magazine and took her mother's place on the couch to give them room.

"We danced as if we'd done it a dozen times before," he said, lifting their joined hands and spinning her slowly under the arc of their arms.

"He was the perfect gentleman at all times," Wally said, her own slight wrinkles showing when she smiled. "By the time the record was over, I was in love. But I didn't know it."

"That night was the only time I ever lied to your mother," Evgeni said and there were appropriate gasps from the children.

"Previously, I had been crying in front of one of the duchesses necklaces," she said, gracefully twirling away, and back into his arms, as if she weren't heavily pregnant with twins.

"Why?" Ilya asked as his brother continued to play in the background.

"Nothing important anymore," Wally said. The children knew they'd both been married, but it wasn't spoken of much. "He unlocked the case and took the necklace out. It was priceless!" She laughed softly. "I was worried he'd lose his job."

"Why, are you going to run off with it?" Evgeni said, exactly on cue and the children laughed.

"I was still nervous, worried … I didn't know what I was feeling," she admitted softly, greying hair swaying as she shook her head. "I was almost afraid that if I let him put it on me, it would … mean something. When he told me it was fake, I knew he was lying, but his eyes were so kind and his hands so gentle that I let him put it on."

"You looked beautiful in it," Evgeni said, eyes as full of love as they were then. Even more so.

"I looked at it in the mirror," she said, "He was behind me. He asked what I was thinking about. I said 'What it must be like to be loved that much?'"

Evgeni dipped her, and drew her up slowly, strong hand supporting her back. "And what is your definition of love?" he murmured and he could hear Nadya's 'awww!' as he leaned in and kissed her, just as he wished he could have that night.

"I got scared, after that," Wally said quietly, but without shame. "I took the necklace off, and your father offered to walk me home. I told him only if he put his pants back on."

That got a laugh from the children, and Nadya slid off the couch to make room for her mother as Evgeni eased her back down. Big Junior stopped playing and turned back towards the couch.

"Is all that true, Papa?" Nadya asked, dropping cross legged on the floor with the sort of grace only children could manage.

"Well, it goes a little differently for me," he explained. He took Wallis from Ilya, who ceded the center of the couch in favor of the corner as Evgeni sat down. One arm held Wallis, his other wrapped around Wally's shoulder and she leaned into him easily. "As she said, I was a security guard at the time. When the auction preview opened, I was stationed beside a display of crystal. A very pretty woman came along …"


End file.
